BCMA welcomes newly arrived Syrian Immigrants

BCMA attended the annual conference for SAH (Sponsorship Agreement Holders) which was held this year in Toronto June 4 - 6 - 2018.

There were 140 SAH members including three Muslim representatives namely BCMA, Muslim Society of Prince Edward Island and the Afghan women’s Counseling and Integration Community. This was the third year BCMA became involved at such a conference where members review the government new policy and discuss issues related to sponsoring refugees into Canada.

For the last few years most of the refugees came to Canada from the Muslims world, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Palestine and Somalia. Canada is leading the world in getting civic societies involved with sponsoring refugees.

BCMA signed the agreement with the Canadian government in late 2015 to be a SAH holder, and started to sponsor refugees into Canada.

Br Shawkat Hasan, Vice President of Social Services at BCMA said, “We felt obliged to help our brothers and sisters fleeing the civil war in Syria. Our people joined with full force and donated generously financially and with household items. A storage facilities were made available at Richmond Muslim School as a center for drop in. People from other faith domination came with help. Since then BCMA applied to sponsor more than fifty refugees. Mustafa, his wife and daughter were the first to arrive this year in June 20, followed by another family of Mr. Ahmad Ousi on Thursday July 5-2018. This is in addition to the one arrived last year. We have been informed to be ready to welcome around 30 people more this year.”

This means that BCMA needs many volunteers to help the families in settling around and to make them feel at home.

It is important to mention that in the Canadian sponsorship communities helping refugees, there are ony three Muslim groups in all Canada. At the same time there are eighty three churches which have been sponsoring many Muslim refugees throughout the years.
According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees the majority of the refugees are from the Muslim World including the Middle East and North Africa.

Members of the BCMA should be proud as their Association is one of the leading Canadian humanitarian services in sponsoring refugees.

BCMA counts on the donation from our community and not receiving any financial aid from the Federal Government. It is time for BCMA to think big to match its humanitarian services it provides to the refugees.